Bottle carrier



y 9, 1956 F. w. LYONS 2,747,914

BOTTLE CARRIER Filed Feb. 20, 1952 nited States Patent BOTTLE CARRIER Frank W. Lyons, Arlington Heights, 111., assignor to himself and Alice Rose Lyons, Arlington Heights, lll., jointly Application February 20, 1952, Serial No. 272,632 4 Claims. (Cl. 294-87) My invention relates to a device for carrying empty beverage bottles and the like and has a reference more particularly to a construction in which a carrying handle has a plurality of hangers suspended therefrom, each of which is detachably connectible to the neck portion of a bottle.

Bottled beverages are used quite extensively in the average home, and it is the usual practice for stores selling such beverages to charge a deposit on the bottles, to be refunded when the empty bottles are returned. The smaller individuar size bottles are often sold a half dozen at a time in paper or cardboard carriers which are easily damaged and often discarded. For this reason, the accumulation and return of empty bottles has become quite a problem in the average home. Moreover, the accumulated empty bottles are often of varying sizes which the usual bottle carriers are not adapted to accommodate and heretofore have necessitated separate carriers for different sizes.

The principal objects of my invention are to provide a carrier for empty beverage bottles which will carry a substantial number of bottles of varying and mixed sizes; to permit bottles to be easily and conveniently attached to and removed from the carrier; to insure sufiiciently secure attachment of the bottles to the carrier that they will not accidentally release therefrom; and to provide individual adjustability of the bottles vertically to uniform bottom level to rest evenly on a flat supporting surface; to provide a bottle carrier which may be used over and over without impairing its usefulness; these and other objects being accomplisl'led as hereinafter described and as shown in the accompanying drawing in which:

l is a side view of a bottle carrier embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is an end view of the handle portion thereof;

Fig. of Fig. l; and

4 is a sectional view on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1. Referring now to the drawing, my bottle carrier consists primarily of a stem 10, a plurality of hangers 11 and carrying handle 12 at the upper end of the stem 19.

The handle 12 may consist of a substantially cylindrical piece of wood of somewhat greater diameter than the stem 1i) and the upper end of the stem 10, which is preferably a metal tube, is inserted into the body of the handle 12 midway between the ends of the latter, as indicated by the dotted lines of Fig. 1, and is secured therein by means of a metallic pin 13 or the like passing substantially diametrically through the handle 12 and through the of the stem 10. This stem is preferably about one-half inch in diameter.

The hangers 11 are preferably alike and each comrises a length of fairly heavy gauge wire or rod stock out between the ends, as indicated at 14, to provide upper and lower arms 15 and 16 respectively preferably at an angle greater than 90 to one another, substantially as indicated in the drawing, the free end of each arm 15 being formed with a closed loop 17 which en- 3 is a fragmentary sectional view on the line 3--3 hanger and require such force for circles the stem 10. Thus a number of hangers 11 are strung on the stem 10 with the loops 17 thereof in superposed relation.

These loops 17 are sufliciently large to slide freely along the stem and are preferably elongated in the direction of the length of the arm 15 to an oval shape, as indicated in Fig. 3, so that each hanger is capable of rocking on the stem 10 in the place of the arm of the stem to an upwardly tilted position in which the upper hanger 11 is shown in Fig. 1 and to a downwardly tilted position in which the two lower hangers 11 are shown in Fi g. 1, and the angularity of the bend i these hangers is preferably such that when the hangers 11 are tilted downwardly to the limit of their permissible downward tilting movement (as in the case of the two lower hangers 11 of Fig. 1), the arms 16 thereof extend substantially straight down so that they are substantially parallel with the ones of the stem 19.

These hangers are permanently assembled on the stem 1%, being retained thereon by the handle 12 at the upper end of the stem and at the lower end preferably by flaring the lower end of the tube, as indicated at 18, sufficiently to prevent removal of the hanger therefrom.

Each hanger is provided at the outer or free end of the arm 16 thereof with a plug or block 19 of resilient, compressible material such as sponge rubber or the like, which may be secured thereto in any convenient manner, as, for example, by bending back the end portion of the wire to provide an upturned clamping end 20 by which the plug or block is clamped securely to the end of the arm 16.

The plug 19 may be of any desired shape and thickness, which may be compressed and inserted through the neck of a beverage bottle and which will expand therein suiliciently to retain the bottle securely on the removal that it cannot he accidentally I have found that for use wth ordinary beverage bottles such as for beer, cokes, ginger ale, root beer, and the like, a square plug or block 19 of latex sponge rubber about one-half inch in thickness and about three-quarters of an inch square achieves the desired purpose. The square plug or block 19 is secured in the end of the hanger 11, by clinching the upturned wire end 20 against the side thereof as shown in Fig. l, and as shown sectionally in Fig. 4, so that the block 19 is straddled by the wire at the end of the hanger. Such a plug 19 may then be inserted under considerable pressure into the neck of a conventional beverage bottle 21 and when inserted beyond the narrowest part of the neck, it expands to about its normal dimension and it provides cushiony support of the bottle 21 against the inner sloping Wall thereof. Employing such dimensions, it is virtually impossible for a bottle 21 to be inadvertently displaced or dropped from engagement with the hanger 11.

The handle 12 may be provided with a notch 22 at each end of the handle 12, and on the under side thereof, said notch 22 tapering from minimum depth near the stem 19 to maximum depth at the end of the handle 12 as indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 1, the notch 22 being shown more clearly in the Fig. 2 end view of the handle 12. The notch 22 is adapted to receive the bend 14 of a hanger 11 at the time the plug 19 is being inserted into a bottle 21, thus providing a surface against which said bend 14 may bear while the necessary pressure is being applied to the hanger 11 to force the plug 19 into the bottle. It will be understood that the oval arrangement of the loop 17 enables tilting the hanger 11 as described.

Ordinarily, a bottle carrier embodying my invention would be provided with about twelve hangers 11, although it will be understood that more or less hangers or unintentionally removed therefrom.

may be employed as desired, When designed to accommodate twelve hangers 11, the stem 10 would preferably be about 3 /4 inches in exposed length, with perhaps another half inch or so inserted into the handle 12 and n e ther iniInpsiug he bottle carrier, it ordinarily might be kept under the sink, in a closet, or in some other convenient place. Each time a beverage bottle 21 was emptied, it would be attached to one of the hangers 11. In so attaching the bottle 21 to the hanger 11, one would tilt an empty hanger 11 upwardly to seat the bond 14 in the notch 22, grasp the handle 12 with one hand, and loop a finger under the hanger 11 to hold it in place in the notch, and, while holding the bottle 21 in the other hand, exert pressure against the handle 12 and thus force the plug 19 into the bottle 21.

When the carrier is suspended by the handle, the bottles attached thereto tend to form a cluster hanging from the stern. When the loaded carrier is placed on the iloor or on a table or counter, the longer bottles tend to slide upwardly on the hanger arm 16 and their respective hangers 11 tend to slide upwardly on the stem 10 so that the bottoms of the larger bottles assume the same elevation as the bottoms of the shorter bottles and at the same level as the shorter bottles. In other words, the hanger arrangement enables the bottles attached thereto to more or less adjust according to their length so that bottles of varying lengths will tend to stand upright and side by side when the loaded bottle carrier is lowered onto a flat surface.

My bottle carrier device is subject to many modifications both in dimension, in the shape of the hangers 11, and the particular shape of the plugs 19, in the manner in which the parts are assembled, and in various other respects, and while I have shown and described my invention in a preferred form, I am-aware that various modifications can be made therein without departing from the spirit of my invention, the scope of which is to be determined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A bottle carrier of the class described comprising a. carrying handle having a stem depending therefrom,

and a bent hanger having a pair of angularly disposed arms, one of said arms being slidably engaged at the outer end on said stem and the other of said arms being provided at its outer end with an individual bottle holder comprising resilient compressible material.

2. A bottle carrier of the class described comprising a handle having a depending stem, and a hanger slidably engaged on said stem, said hanger comprising an elongated member having a loop at one end thereof loosely encircling said stem and slidable vertically along the stem and rotatable'therearound, and an individual bottle holder at the other end of the hanger and comprising a plug of resilient compressible material.

3. A bottle carrier of the class described comprising a handle having a depending stem extending perpendicularly therefrom at the approximate center thereof, and a plurality of hangers carried by said stem, each of said hangers comprising an elongated, intermediately bent, wire-like member having a loop at one end, encircling the stem and slidable therealong and a compressible plug at the other end yieldingly engageable in the neck of a bottle.

4. A bottle carrier of the class described comprising a handle having a depending stem extending perpendicularly therefrom at the approximate center thereof, and a plurality of hangers carried by said stern, each of said hangers comprising an elongated, intermediately bent, wire-like member having a loop at one end, encircling the stem and slidable therealong and a compressible plug at the other end yieldingly engageable in the neck of a bottle, said handle having a groove at each end thereof with which the intermediately bent portion of each hanger is selectively engageable.

Ref r nc s Cited in the file of hi pa ent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,151,163 Cederholm Aug. 24, 1915 1,474,322 Ducorron Nov. 13, 1923 1,691,123 Pajeau .Nov. 13, 1928 1,914,371 Hutt June 20, 1933 2,676,836 Raphael Apr. 27, 1954 

